Drop all sedition charges, plan to strengthen OSA, Kit Siang tells A-G

Following the attorney-general's decision to withdraw the sedition charge against Universiti Malaya law lecturer, Associate Professor Azmi Sharom, DAP now wants all cases under the Sedition Act to be dropped. The party's parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang hailed Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali's decision, but added that Azmi should not have been charged in the first place. Likewise, Seputeh MP Teresa Kok, who was charged over her Chinese New Year video "Onederful Malaysia CNY 2014". "The withdrawal of the sedition charge against Azmi, and the earlier withdrawal of the sedition charge against Teresa Kok, are the only silver lining in the gathering of dark clouds following the sudden and shocking sacking of Tan Sri (Abdul) Gani Patail as attorney-general and the appointment of Tan Sri Mohamad Apandi Ali as the public prosecutor six months ago," Lim said in a statement today. The Gelang Patah MP also urged the A-G to heed the outrage over his proposal to increase criminal penalties under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) to punish and deter whistle-blowers and journalists for publishing information to combat corruption. Lim added that corruption has worsened under the Najib administration as compared with the leadership under Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. He said it was unthinkable that Datuk Seri Najib Razak's government could think of such retrogressive measures after Malaysia had just been named third in the world's "worst corruption scandals in 2015" and fallen four places in Transparency International's (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2015, and risk being overtaken by China and Indonesia in both TI CPI rank and score within a decade. "The Attorney-General's Chambers should not take a single step forward to draft proposals to increase criminal penalties under the OSA to punish and deter whistle-blowers and journalists from publishing information to combat corruption, unless the attorney-general is specifically directed, sanctioned or authorised by the Cabinet to do so. "The attorney-general should not take the sycophantic support of a few Umno ministers to his proposal as Cabinet sanction and authority to amend the OSA to clamp down on whistle-blowers and journalists from fighting corruption in Malaysia, which can only further impair Malaysia's image in the world." – February 13, 2016.]]>